#characterization thoughts

I get that people aren't necessarily under an obligation to write him exactly as he appears in the comic, but I feel like the pure ubiquity with which his fanon self is portrayed has caused a lot of people to just think he's that way, leading to them deciding to write him that way because they think that's just the character he is. I feel that there is often a dearth of other interpretations of his character that you wouldn't necessarily see for some other characters.

There is certainly a certain appeal to the fanon version of Legend (though it's no longer my cup of tea, it certainly was at one point), and there's also appeal to the version of Legend that appears in the comic. People don't feel beholden to the canon, as is the nature of fanwork, but by that same logic people are under no obligation to stick with fanon either. If you have opinions on him (or any character, really) that doesn't really go with all the super common headcanons, please, just put them out there anyway. It's not like they're going to be any less canon than the fanon version of him.

This ask has been sitting in my inbox for a while now because I've been unsure about how I want to go about attacking it (you've given me such a gift, anon)

But I think I'll use this as an opportunity to publicly share a long line of characterization thoughts I discussed one day in the steven stone appreciation discord server (compiled below the cut, it's going to be kinda messy)

Specifically, I generally do not write him like a child. He simply does not think like one or act like one (unless he is deliberately trying to shape others' perceptions). Maybe it's because I've ended up setting him up as some sort of narrative foil to Legend but he also thinks and monologues a lot. But perhaps most importantly, he really does not make it easy to tell what's going on in his head unless the scene is directly in his point of view.